Chickens straying to find boys?

[estomlin]

We have a flock of 7 chickens that we got as day old chicks at the end of April. We have been letting them free range all day, along with our flock of 15 guineas, and they are locked up at night. Everyone gets along well (guineas have a separate coop for sleeping), and all summer the chickens stayed close to the house, sometimes hiding in the woods, but never very far. Recently, the girls have started trekking about a half mile down the road to spend the day with our neighbor's rooster and chickens. We have gone from 6 eggs a day to one or two. We are not sure if they have just stopped laying because it is fall, or if they are laying somewhere else now. My question is, does anyone know if getting a rooster of our own will encourage them to stay home? They undoubtably will fall prey to something if they continue their high risk behavior!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

A rooster of your own will probably not fix your issue... but a fence can go a LONG way.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

First year chickens usually lay right thru the winter season.

I agree that they should... but tell that to my free loaders.

 

[andreanar]

That is a suck! They are laying at your neighbors, Im sure. First year chickens usually lay right thru the winter season. I don't think getting your own roo will stop them. Im thinking you are going to have to construct a run and keep them in for quite awhile. If they were mine, I would keep them confined to coop and run until spring, then see if they forgot how much they love going to your neighbors.

 

[andreanar]

I agree that they should... but tell that to my free loaders.

Ugh! Ive always been lucky with my first year pullets (knock on wood).

 

[DobieLover]

My chickens were hatched 4/30 this year. They were doing the same thing but with my cockerel leading the pack. They were not visiting a nearby farm. They just wanted to wander further and further away.
They now spend most of their days in the newly fenced in 1/4 acre pen I made for them. I let them out about 1 - 2 hours before dusk and that has kept them from going too far.

 

[estomlin]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

A rooster of your own will probably not fix your issue... but a fence can go a LONG way.

Thanks!

 

[estomlin]

That is a suck! They are laying at your neighbors, Im sure. First year chickens usually lay right thru the winter season. I don't think getting your own roo will stop them. Im thinking you are going to have to construct a run and keep them in for quite awhile. If they were mine, I would keep them confined to coop and run until spring, then see if they forgot how much they love going to your neighbors.

Yeah - I was worried that might be the best answer - they are going to be mad!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Ugh! Ive always been lucky with my first year pullets (knock on wood).

Inevitably the pullets will have a mini molt or somehow late bloomers.

I think I'm gonna head to lock down for a couple days though and see if I have someone hiding nests!

 

[centrarchid]

Interesting memory...

I bought a trio and kept them separate from the rest of my ladies. All my roosters are in a stag pen, next door to the hens. One of the hens in the trio started moving towards all the other hens to become part of the larger flock EVEN though there was NO rooster residing with them.

After dispatching the male in the trio, the hen that gravitated to the larger flock instantly moved in with them. The other was shyer and got moved.

Not a single one of my hens or pullets tries to get into my rooster pen for mating opportunities. Though there will be occasional flirting and courting through the fence, it isn't a ton for how many birds I have.

Maybe it's simply a case of safety in numbers. Anyways, so many different chicken personalities... who can tell what any individual is thinking. But peer pressure is real... monkey see, monkey do. Ones who are content to stay will learn the bad behavior from the perpetrator... things like hiding nests and hopping fences or in this case wondering toward the other flock sounds.

She-man men haters club running at your place. Forage quality can be important. Some females interact with males only for conjugal visits and the interactions are brief enough to be hard to spot.

Once my birds are of breeding age, females almost never move about without a male unless already invested in a breeding effort. I have had males run off females showing little or no interest in mating with them. That is particularly evident in my games. The male is already vested in a group of hens and offspring when that occurs.

I have seen what george referred to and think it is closer to reality than hens preferring to operate in hen-only groupings. When we pack larger groups in little parcels of land where a feeder keeps them coming back we start seeing some weird stuff that is not considered to be the norm.